HP Plans 16,000 More Layoffs

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Hewlett-Packard will lay off another 16,000 workers on top of 34,000 layoffs it already announced. The move could save up to an additional billion dollars a year by 2016 on top of the maximum $4 billion savings previously anticipated.

The layoffs will come across all HP's product divisions and geographical locations. About 7,000 of the new layoffs will come before the end of HP's 2014 fiscal year and the rest before the end of 2015.

On a quarterly earnings call, HP chief executive Meg Whitman took a hammering from Wall Street analysts, clearly surprised by the magnitude of the numbers. Whitman announced her turnaround plan in May 2012 estimating layoffs of 27,000. The numbers were later boosted to 29,000, then 34,000 and now are estimated at a total 50,000

Analysts asked if Whitman had lost confidence in HP's ability to grow revenues.

"This has nothing to do with our confidence in business, it's about opportunities to make this company better," Whitman said. "I've done a number of turnarounds -- not at this scale -- but you see more opportunities the deeper you get in," she said.

Executives have been studying additional opportunities to streamline the company since last year, signaling along the way more layoffs could come, added HP's CFO.

Whitman noted HP has had three quarters of flat revenues after several quarters of revenue declines of 6& to 9%. "That's encouraging to me because you have to stabilize before you grow," she said.

Although HP's divisions might have their own layoff plans to deal with specific business issues in the future, "I do not anticipate another [corporate restructuring] program after this," Whitman said.

You can never trust the management when they say that the revenues are up or no more layoffs. Only thing that they care about is shareholders or boardmembers to who they have to report and they will go to any extent to satisfy the market.

@wilber_xbox i wonder how many more will be affected such as temporary contractors.

Funny you should mention this, back around 2006 I was a temporary contractor for Hewlett-Packard, my 6-month contracts were renewed 3 times because they liked my work. Then word came down from on-high that all contractors were to be let go at the end of their contract periods to reduce expenses. Back to the bread line...